How clients check your licence

Where does a client look you up?

On the Land Department's own register. The Department publishes a Licensed Real Estate Brokers list on its website, and the same list sits in the Dubai REST app under Services. Its search box asks for a broker, an office, a mobile number, an area or an ORN, and it can be filtered to sale, lease or mortgage brokers, to offices, or by project and area.

Two other Department services sit alongside it. Verify License and Permits checks the electronic copy of a licence or permit issued through Trakheesi, on the website or in the app, and the Department lists it as immediate. Trade License Search checks a trade licence number registered with the Department.

The app is the version of these checks a client has in their hand at a viewing. The Department describes Dubai REST as its smart platform for real estate services, available in Arabic and English on the Android and Apple stores, and lists details about real estate brokers and their performance levels among its features.

Which number a client should be checking, yours or the firm's, is the subject of the broker card piece in this guide. The short version: the BRN is you and the ORN is the brokerage, and a careful client checks both.

What does your record show a client?

More than you might expect. An individual record on the Department's list shows your name, your broker number, the brokerage you are registered under, your licence issue and expiry dates and your contact numbers. It has tabs for office details, sale transactions, projects and a ranking. The Department's guide to the app adds that a user can download the broker card from it.

The firm's record shows its office number, its licence issue and expiry dates, the real estate activities it is licensed for, such as sale or leasing brokerage, and a Brokers tab listing the people registered under it. One quirk worth knowing: on the day we checked, that tab labelled each person's number "Office Number", while the individual record calls the same figure the broker number. A client comparing the two can be confused by it, and you can explain it in a sentence.

The ranking tab is worth a look too. The Department's Practice Guide says RERA classifies brokerage offices and brokers against approved standards and that all brokers must aim for a five star rating or the golden category, so assume a careful client will read it.

Before a client looks, look yourself. Search your own name and your firm's ORN, check the dates, and make sure the contact number is one you answer.

How does a client check an advert?

Through the permit. The Practice Guide says a brokerage must obtain a permit through Trakheesi for any real estate advertisement and display the permit number on it. Since April 2023 the Department has also issued a Madmoun QR code with each advertising permit.

The Department's announcements describe what that code does for a client. Scanning it verifies the advert's authenticity and validity and shows the property's authorised details on the Department's website, including the company behind it. The Department advises customers to deal only with adverts that carry the code, and the service takes reports of adverts that do not match it.

That turns every listing you run into a licence check a client can do without asking you. An advert with a missing code, or one whose code leads to another company, tells them something before you have spoken. How permits are applied for, and what an advert has to carry, has its own piece in this section.

What should you show a client before they ask?

One of these is a rule, the permit on the advert. The rest is practice, and the point of it is that the client never has to wonder.

A client who has to dig for your licence starts the relationship checking you. A client who was handed it starts it checking the property, which is where you want their attention.

1. 01

   Your broker card

   Anyone can download it from the Department's app, which is a reason to show yours at the first meeting rather than wait for a client to find it.

2. 02

   Your BRN and the firm's ORN, in writing

   On your email signature and your business card, so the client can search either one on the register without asking.

3. 03

   The permit on every listing

   The number and the QR code, as the Department requires, on every advert you send, including the ones you share directly.

4. 04

   The contract they are about to sign

   Contracts A and B both carry the brokerage's ORN and the agent's BRN on the Department's templates. Walk the client through those lines before they approve it.

What does an owner check after you call them?

Owners check agents too, and an unexpected call is an obvious moment for it. That check has a second half that has nothing to do with your card.

The Practice Guide describes a green list, available to brokers in the Dubai REST app, of registered owners and their contact details. It says brokers are not allowed to contact owners who are not on it, and that contacting someone who is not will bring a violation and a suspension of the broker's operations if an investor or client complains or reports it.

The Department also runs a Report Malicious Calls service among its Real Estate Complaints services, for calls and messages marketing or promoting real estate services. So an owner who finds you on the register has confirmed you are licensed, and has also found the place to report the call if it should not have been made. What counts as a violation, and what it costs, has its own piece in this section.

What does it mean if a client cannot find you?

It can be something ordinary or something serious, and it is your job to know which before the client decides for you.

If you are licensed and still not appearing, check the search first: a different spelling, a shorter name than the full one the register lists, or a search for you under the firm's name. If you have recently moved brokerage, your card is cancelled under one firm and issued again under the next. Check your own record the day you move, because the client sees what the register shows, not what you tell them.

A lapse is the serious case. The Department states that a practice card's validity is linked to the validity of the trade licence, so a card can be affected by the firm's licence as well as your own renewal. If your record shows an expired licence, resolve it with your brokerage and the Department before the next client conversation, not after it.

From the client's side, the Department's own channels are the place to settle it. If they cannot find the person advising them on the Department's register, the question to settle is why, with the Department's own channels, before signing or paying anything.